State of the TBR May 2019 (plus book confessions!)

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear – we appear to have reached Peak TBR. Two full shelves plus stacks and the Pile is not even pictured. This has not been helped by my only managing to read six books in April – two of them were substantial non-fiction works.

One reason for the absolute fullness of the shelves is that when I was in London to visit my best friend and to support friends in the London Marathon, I happened into a North London Oxfam Books and found these two lovelies:

Who doesn’t like a book on ancient and not-so-ancient Britain? and I’ll be running past at least the White Horse of Uffington (which I’m scared of, not really taken away by reading the book based on the TV series that made me scared of it) when I do my ultra marathon in July. So Paul Newman’s “Lost Gods of Albion: The Chalk Hill-Figures of Britain” weighed down my rucksack all day on Sunday. And then a Persephone book I don’t have for only a fiver? Nicholas Mosley’s “Julian Grenfell” is now mine, and it’s not as battered as it appears in the photo.

I’ve also won on NetGalley “Brave, Not Perfect” by Reshma Saujani (about encouraging women and girls to be one but not just strive for the other), Joe Berridge’s “Perfect City” (totally Cari’s fault, that one: a book about urban planning and how the world’s cities are coping or not coping) and “Don’t Touch my Hair” by Emma Dabiri which is a cultural history of black hairstyling culture as a key in to black oppression and liberation.

Now, I did start both of these on my journey down to London and have nearly finished Simon Armitage’s “Gig” which is a loose collection of pieces and poems about being on the road and doing various ‘gigs’ either with musicians or as a jobbing poet. Mark Doyle’s “The Way Home” is about doing without technology – I’ve not unfortunately taken to the author very much but it is interesting in it’s way so I’m pressing on. That’s from NetGalley, hence the odd cover image on PC screen/real book pairing.

I have also finished “Invisible Women” by Caroline Criado Perez and that’s the sixth book for April if anyone’s counting. I’m reviewing that one for Shiny New Books, so I’ll link to my review when it’s written and published there. I’ve just heard I’ve got a possible three more coming from a publisher for Shiny reviews so I’d better get my reading skates on!

My next read after I’ve finished these two (or probably one of them) will be Iris Murdoch’s “The Sea, The Sea” for my Iris Murdoch Readalong project. You can see the cover images and read the blurbs on my introductory post from yesterday if you like. I really can’t wait to read this, one of my favourites of hers, and I’m pretty sure I’ve read it more than the two or three times I’ve read all of the others. I’ll be reading the one on the end but I do like the three covers I have so thought I’d share them all with you.

I’ll also be reading either one of my new NetGalley books or one of the ones that are sadly languishing on the Kindle.

Here are the start and finish of my TBR and I have a horrible feeling the start is almost the same as last month, while the finish has changed dramatically.

The start …

… the finish

The ones at the start will be read in order but I will probably leave “Julian Grenfell” for All August / All Virago (and Persephone) and skip to “Hidden Figures” and “The House on Willow Street” as I want to lend those to a friend. “Albion” will need to be read before mid-July. I am hopeful of more reading time this month as I have my marathon at the end of the month, so there’s some serious resting, tapering and travelling / recovering to be done during May!

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It seems to be taking me forever to reach that book in the TBR!! I’m sure it’s brilliant, too. This is not mentioning the set of sagas that is nestling on top of the back layer, just seen in the pic of the end of the TBR.

I have a copy of Julian Grenfell unread too. Gosh your shelf is full, but some very interesting reading ahead. I saw the film Hidden Figures which was superb, I’ll be interested to hear about the book.

I THINK I did a post on here where I shared having come across Hidden Figures the book on the Tuesday after having watched the film over the weekend. Really loved the film so am also interested to read the book, which is non-fiction and explains it all properly. Are you doing Julian G in August, too?

Love that you have so many books! I watched the movie Hidden Figures but haven’t read the book, looking forward to reading what you think of it. Also, love that you have “Don’t Touch My Hair,” sounds like such an important book about black liberation and oppression. I feel like I’m potentially feeling more connected to your reading choices, at least more so than before. (:

I’m also considering getting a NetGalley account but am intimidated by how it works and what not. People have said that because of my Goodreads presence I’d be in a formidable choice with it, but idk. Is the site easy to navigate for you?

So so many. I do feel it’s not as diverse as it might have been in the past, not sure why: i do have a lot of music and running ones on there at the moment. I have some more sitting on the Kindle and have just had a beautiful book on community-led design which is a worldwide register of amazing projects that help women, people of colour, people in poverty, etc (that’s just from a quick flick through). I’m actually keeping a diversity record for my books this year which should be interesting.

NetGalley is a bit of a double-edged sword – it’s easy to use but I just rely on the emails they send me and the evilness of friends recommending stuff to me. You can get overwhelmed by it!

Blimey, once again I’ve read none of these but then reading hasn’t been on my radar for a while, sadly. I am darting back to England for a bit soon so I do get to see what I have left there to read, as I’ve completely forgotten most books, despite only having looked at them five or so months ago.